Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Nov 14: Addl.Session Judge, Kathua Sonia Gupta awarded seven years rigorous imprisonment and fine of Rs. 25000 to a rapist namely Mohinder Singh S/o Kaku Ram R/o Chajarth Tehsil Hiranagar who was facing trial for raping a 12th class girl student.
After hearing A.P.P Naveen Choudhary for the State and A.S Salathia Advocate for the accused, presiding officer convicted the accused for commission of offence punishable u/s 376 RPC.
The offence u/s 376 RPC committed by the accused is punishable with imprisonment of either description for the term which shall not be less than 7 years, but which may be for life or for a term which may extend to 10 years and shall also be liable to fine,” The court said, adding the trial in this case has taken a decade and the accused has his own family when the case came up for quantum of sentence, counsel for the accused contended that accused is a married person having two daughters as such court must take a lenient view while awarding sentence to him. However, the public prosecutor for the State argued that accused has ravished a helpless school going girl at the time of occurrence as such he does not deserve any leniency. After hearing both the sides, Addl. Session Judge, Kathua observed, “the accused is proved to have raped the prosecutrix, who is school going student.
The court further observed, while awarding sentence in a rape case protection of society and stamping out proclivity must be the object of law which must be achieved by impressing appropriate sentence. Pointing towards the submission of counsel for the accused regarding lenient views, Addl. Session Judge said, “the common man will lose faith in courts because in cases like those relating to rape he understands and appreciates the language of deterrence than the reformative Jargon.” With these observations, court awarded 7 years of rigorous imprisonment and fine Rs 25000 to the convict.
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